Hello, All.  Didn't see much yesterday worth a comment or even worth a read.  I spent a couple of hours on that cross stitch tablecloth that has languishing by my chair for months.  Glory be,  I am almost three quarters done.  I need to clean up upstairs so I can find the crochet edging patterns and select one for the finish.  Other than that--not much going on here.

I love this bit from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism--

 I once saw an exhibition on Indian art that featured crows, and the display included a considerable discussion of corvid intelligence. One scientist was quoted saying something like, “The stories you hear about the intelligence of most animals are exaggerated, but with corvids, they are understated.” The only anecdote I recall was a man was trying to frustrate a crow by giving him more than he could carry away (there was a reason I now forget why it was clear the crow would take any food and go). He tossed two doughnuts at him. The crow immediately stuck his beak through the hole in one, grabbed the other, and took off.

Maha has an interesting take on the Obama Presidency.  Thought provoking and I am going to have to digest the notion a bit.  I am reminded of a change in assessment of a previous President, Dwight D. Eisenhower.  During and Immediately after his term, many thought him timid and ineffective on many counts.  A generation later newer historians suddenly discovered a different Eisenhower--cunning, effective in achieving his goals, and restrained rather than timid.  I have not been a great fan of Obama.  He is far too restrained for my tastes but then perhaps he has been more effective than I have recognized.  Further cogitation required.

Nor am I a great fan of Fareed Zakaria but he also, every now and then, says something that rings a bell in my mind.  He does that with this post on the possibilities that oil prices will decline soon because the demand for oil is in relatively low and not likely to pick up soon.  I have read only a couple of other posts (and those were some time ago) that talked about the price levels oil producing countries needed in order to meet their governmental budgets.  This Reuters report lends credence to Zakaria's point.